Google Cloud Functions and Firebase

Google Cloud Functions is Google's serverless compute solution for creating
event-driven applications. It is a joint product between the Google Cloud
Platform team and the Firebase team.

For Google Cloud Platform developers, Cloud
Functions serve as a connective layer
allowing you to weave logic between Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services by
listening for and responding to events.

For Firebase developers,
Cloud Functions for Firebase
provides a way to extend the behavior of Firebase and integrate Firebase
features through the addition of server-side code.

Both solutions provide fast and reliable execution of functions in a fully
managed environment where there's no need for you to worry about managing any
servers or provisioning any infrastructure.

Cloud Functions for Firebase

You should use Cloud Functions for Firebase if you're a developer building a
mobile app or mobile web app. Firebase gives mobile developers access to a
complete range of fully managed mobile-centric services including analytics,
authentication and Realtime Database. Cloud Functions rounds out the offering
by providing a way to extend and connect the behavior of Firebase features
through the addition of server-side code.

Firebase developers can easily integrate with external services for tasks like
processing payments and sending SMS messages. Also, developers can include
custom logic that is either too heavyweight for a mobile device, or
which needs to be secured on a server. See
What Can I Do with Cloud Functions?
to learn more about typical integration use cases.
For developers that need a more full-featured backend, Cloud
Functions provides a gateway to the powerful capabilities in
Google Cloud Platform.

Cloud Functions for Google Cloud Platform

Developers can connect and extend GCP services by writing code in the form of a
Cloud Function. Cloud Functions serve as a connective layer allowing you to
weave logic between GCP services by listening for and responding to events. With
just a few lines of code, developers can enrich their use of GCP services to
create higher level combinations without needing to provision or manage servers.
See the Google Cloud Functions
documentation for more information.